General Assembly
Sixtieth session
Agenda items 14 and 108
The situation in the Middle East

Security Council
Sixty-first year

Measures to eliminate international terrorismIdentical letters dated 14 July 2006 from the PermanentRepresentative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UnitedNations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President ofthe Security Council

Upon instruction from my Government and with reference to the letter, dated 12 July 2006, addressed to you by the Israeli representative and the sessions of the Security Council of 13 and 14 July 2006, while categorically rejecting his baseless and self-serving accusations against my country, I have the honor to state the following:

- It is ironic that the representative of a regime whose invading army began its new round of unbridled atrocities about two weeks ago against a defenseless people in the Gaza Strip, under the pretext of freeing a captive, is now accusing my country of opening another chapter in "war of terror". Ever since its assault on Gaza, the said army, equipped to teeth with the state-of-the-art weaponry, cowardly kept attacking civilians and civilian infrastructures, disrupting power and water supplies, destroying roads and bridges, battering cities and villages, depriving the civilians from basic necessities, and, thus, displaying the worst case of State terrorism. - The same army, under the same pretext, has now begun unleashing similar ,atrocities against another people. It is actually carrying out the threat of its Chief of Staff, who cruelly threatened that "nothing is safe" in Lebanon and "the clock will be turned back twenty years for Lebanese people." Bombarding more than 20 Lebanese cities and villages, the imposition of an air and sea blockade on the country, which defies any justification, destruction of civilian infrastructures and raising the specter of new regional war could only be carried out by a regime that considered itself above every international standard law.

- The Zionist regime has stubbornly refused to admit that it bears the sole responsibility for the crimes that it has perpetrated resulting from its act of occupation of other peoples' territories, and that it should abandon looking for excuses and scapegoats. History bears testimony to the inescapable fact that no occupiers have ever been able to bludgeon peoples under occupation into submission. There should be no doubt that the Palestinian people are no exception to this rule. Therefore, the occupiers should learn from history and stop making their hands bloodier by shattering more innocent lives.

It is ironic too that the representative of a regime, which has illegally and clandestinely acquired hundreds of nuclear bombs and their means of delivery and is the only WMD proliferator in the whole region, dares to accuse baselessly my country of the wrongdoing that several decades ago was done by his own regime.

It is undisputable that nuclear arms in the hands of a regime that blatantly disregards any limit or proportionality in its aggressive acts, as demonstrated in the course of its history, is a brazen threat to peace and security in the volatile region of Middle East. This is a threat that needs to be urgently and decisively addressed by the international community.

The Zionist regime has so far flouted the will of the international community, incorporated in numerous UN resolutions. As the new waves of aggressions by this regime seriously threaten international peace and security, the Security Council has an enormous responsibility under the UN Charter to take necessary and prompt steps with a view to putting an end to its aggressions. It is very unfortunate that once more the Security Council became paralyzed by the American use of veto, exercised on 13 July 2006, against the will and expectation of the international community. This veto demonstrates the real axis that has been at work in our region, aiming at precluding a lasting and just peace.

I should be grateful, if you would have this letter circulated as a document of the General Assembly,under agenda items 14 and 108 ,and of the Security Council.